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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  2. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. This piece is in a major ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. key — for a lock
  3. cold — an illness
  4. key — in music
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. key — the most important part
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. cold — not warm
  9. row — to paddle
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. row — a line
  12. bark — to shout
  13. wind — moving air
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. wind — moving air
  17. mine — for digging
  18. bark — a dog's sound

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com